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written by Dennis Fisher about a very wide variety of subjects concerning
different dogs, such as obedience training, breeding, showing, health
matters, training problems and other subjects. All these articles appear
on Dennis Fisher's websites. Visit
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that has been set up specifically for German Shepherd Dog enthusiasts, or
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interested in a breed other than German Shepherd Dogs

SIT STAY

This is a fairly easy exercise if you carry out the different training steps
gradually.

Your firststep is to give the command ‘SIT STAY” in a clear, firm voice. Then goto the end of your lead and stand in front of your dog.To make this command more definite, when you stand in front of your dog,
you can hold your right hand high with fingers outstretched, imitating a traffic
controllers stop signal; or you can hold your extended hand in front of the
dog’s face.

Keep your dog in this sitstay position for a while; then
circle him by walkingaround him.

In the initial stage you need walk around him only once before returning to his
right side.Later youcan increase the number of times you circle your dog before returning to
him.

By holding the leash while instructing
him to SIT STAY, your dog will not be anxious that you will leave him and not
return.

It is important for your dog to be absolutely confident that you will return to
him.This will avoid the problemof the dog getting up and coming to look for you when the training is
more advanced and you have to leave the dog for a considerable time on itsown while you disappear from view.

If you are able to train your dog to remain in the sit-stay position for a
length of time, you’ll have no difficulty in leaving it for a long time in the
DOWN position.

When the dog has become accustomed to remaining in the SIT STAY position while
you are holding the leash, you can give him a firm SIT STAY command, then drop
the leash and walk away.

In the initial stages of training you can walk backwards away from your dog,
keeping your right hand extended.Keep the distance fairly short at first and gradually lengthen the
distance.

If your dog has the habit of coming to you after you have give him the command
SIT STAY, left him and walked some distance away, here is a useful way to break
this habit:

1.
Get a very long length of light but strong webbing or some other material.Attach it to the dog’s collar.

2.
Find a tree on your training field.

3.
Take the dog about six feet in front of the tree andgive itthe Sit stay command

4.
Take this very long lead that you have made and wind
it very loosely once around the base of
the pole or tree that is behind the dog.

5.
Make sure that this lead is lying loosely on the ground and the dog is not aware
that it is attached to his collar.

6.
Walk about ten to fifteen feet away from the dog with the end of the very long
lead in your hand.

7.The dog should still be in the SIT STAY
position.

8.
Drop the lead to the ground in front of you and repeat the SIT STAYcommand with your right hand extended.

9.
You have dropped the long lead to the ground in front of you, so the dog is not
aware that the lead is attached to its collar.

10.
When the dog breaks the SIT STAY and start coming towards you, quickly pick up
the end of the lead that is on the ground in front of you. Give it a quick jerk.

11.
The lead, attached to the dog’s collar, is wrapped around the
base of the tree.

12.
This prevents the dog from coming forward to you.It is jerked to a halt.

13.
The dog is forced to stop in its tracks.It is completely confused that youare able to control it’s movement and stop it coming to you.

14.
In future, when you leave the dog in the sit stay position, all you have to do
is to givetheSTAYcommand

15.
You won’t have to use the extra long lead again. Leavea normal lead hanging on the groundin front ofthe dog.

.

The dogwill have no idea whether or not
you have control of this lead and will not take a chance and break his stay.